An announcement from one of our favorite charities, Thanks USA:

ThanksUSA, a charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to “thank” our active-duty troops by providing college scholarships to their spouses and dependents, today opened its third year accepting applications for scholarships.

Interested applicants can find more information, eligibility requirements and the official application form at www.ThanksUSA.org. Applications will be accepted from April 1 through May 15, 2008.

“America’s troops provide an invaluable service to our country, and the sacrifice of these men and women and their families should not come at the expense of their educational pursuits,” said Carolyn Ferek, officer of ThanksUSA. “We hope, that in a small way, these scholarships reflect the nation’s appreciation for their service to help defend our freedom.”

ThanksUSA began in 2005 as the idea of two Virginia schoolgirls, Rachel and Kelsi Okun, as a way to mobilize Americans to thank our active-duty troops for defending our freedoms. The girls attracted a small cadre of adults to develop their idea – including their parents, who contributed the goal of raising funds for military-family scholarships for college, technical and vocational school.

A rare night out for Extreme Mortman yesterday to attend the Washington screening of “Charlie Wilson’s War.”  Thanks to the wonderful charity ThanksUSA — a non-partisan, charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to “thank” the men and women of the United States armed forces by providing college, technical and vocational school scholarships for their children and spouses — we were able to see a movie we’ve long-anticipated.  It was a generous event: fancy dinner at the fancy Motion Picture Association of America with fancy philanthropic people.

And how was the movie?

If you’re nostalgic for early ’80s DC and politics, this film is for you.  It’s rare we get on-screen mentions of both Jack Murtha and Rudy Giuliani  (Murtha makes out well, Giuliani becomes a punchline.  And Doc Long, portrayed by Ned Beatty.  Maryland political junkies will recognize Doc Long as Democrat Clarence “Doc” Long, who held Maryland’s 2nd Congressional district for years (and was a strong anti-communist with bucks to back it up) before turning the seat over to Republican Helen Bentley back in the mid-’80s.

And of course Charlie Wilson (played by Tom Hanks), the kind of free-spirited congressman who today we’d label libertarian merely because we don’t quite know how to categorize an America-loving Democrat who hates Communists and loves whiskey and allegedly the harder recreation stuff too and embraces free love and proudly staffs a Congressional office with fabulous Playboy-quality babes named “Jailbait.”  He’s destined for the ethics committee — and for boosting funding on the covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan from $5 million to $1 billion.

“Let’s kill some Russians” is the movie’s rallying cry — a bit more straightforward than “Give me liberty or give me death.”  More similar to the “Red Dawn” heroic cry “Wolverines!”

The movie provides just a glancing mention of Massoud, the greatest of the Afghan freedom fighters.  Massoud does not merit an on-screen portrayal.  It’s a short movie — beefing up Massoud’s portrayal would have been well worth the extra time.  And it would have given an uplifting story and face to contrast with all the faceless poor souls at the refugee camps at the Afghan/Pakistan border — many horribly disfigured from Soviet mines.
Sorkin’s overly whimsical writing is on steroids in this one.  Sorkin’s style has transitioned from trademark and distinctive to annoying and farcical.  And his heavy touch with music absolves the audience of any requirement to think for themselves.

Despite that, it’s a wonderful rush to get caught up again in classic anti-Communist fervor.  We won that one.  It’s a great feeling hopefully we’ll never soon forget — and an unmistakable contrast with today’s war.

Sorkin brings us to the end of Wilson’s tale with thick messaging on how America’s involvement in pushing out the Communists from Afghanistan ends up bringing in the Taliban, in essence sparking and fueling the terrorists who would later do us harm.  We should have replaced weapons funding with schools funding, the movie lectures us.
It makes you angry seeing Sorkin end the movie that way.  And it makes you even angrier knowing he’s right.

A special note about two Thanksgiving charities we urge you to explore and support this holiday season.

1)  America Supports You — a national expression of thanks to our military men and women during the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Beginning Saturday, November 17, and ending at midnight PDT on November 22, Americans can text a message of thanks to 89-279 (TX ASY).

Because all the major mobile wireless providers—AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile—will provide access to the text-message program, there is no upcharge.

Members of the military and their families -— we now have troops serving in 177 countries -—will learn the number of text messages and be able to view many of them.

America Supports You expects this effort to be a unifying moment for the nation, at a time in which families traditionally come together and express gratitude for things large and small that contribute to their lives.

To learn more, please visit http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/thanks/index.aspx, where you can view and listen to PSAs, copy the code to embed widgets into your blog or Web site, and see a running tally of how many messages have been sent. You can also friend ASY via MySpace, at http://myspace.com/americasupportsyou.

Since its formation three years ago, the America Supports You program has welcomed over 300 grassroots organizations and 35 corporate sponsors to its team. Many ASY team members support the troops through letter-writing, sending care packages, helping the wounded when they return home, assisting military families, sending an e-mail or making a kind gesture. To learn more about how you can help, please visit www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil.

2)  Thanks USA — Extreme Mortman has been a proud and enthisiastic supporter of this great charity since its beginning.  This note was just sent out:

Watch for the announcement that ThanksUSA’s American History Treasure Hunt Three is to begin Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007. This time the hunt runs through August 15, 2008. We hope you will once again help us “Treasure our Troops” with your support of the hunt and the scholarship fund for the kids and spouses of the troops.

A few things to plug here on a hot, hazy Friday afternoon:

1) One of my favorite charities, which I’ve mentioned repeatedly on this blog, is ThanksUSA. It raises funds for education scholarships for children and spouses of our troops through a national treasure hunt. It’s a great cause. The charity’s driving force Bob Okun recently wrote about it in the Washington Times. Check out the op-ed here.

2) Jon Eick, my gifted and multi-talented colleague at New Media Strategies, has launched a hilarious food blog called So Good. Check it out here. I particularly enjoyed his posting on Bacon Salt. Alas, the concept won’t work in Israel because of, ahem, Menachem Bacon.

3) If you hate Barry Bonds, or for that matter if you hate Extreme Mortman, you’ll get a kick out of this comment that was posted to my Politico piece on Barack Obama mishandling the Bonds homerun question:

Howard, I had written a more detailed comment, however, I scratched it. After giving it some thought - - of which this article displays that you have deficiencies. And that’s okay, everyone have deficiences, however, everyone is not allowed the opportunity of public display. I totally agree with RuthieM in regards to the article and Barack’s response to the question. There is one matter that is clear through the comments - - we all believe you need help. Hopefully, friends and family will manage some type of intervention for you. Sounds like a case of the deinstitualized mentally ill to me. Just to think that you would even try to comprehend and reason on the level of Barack Obama is obsurd based upon your rendition here. I pray that you are not given access to any weapons beyond a computer technology. The world would be in a lot of danger.

To which I can only point out, if you think I’m dangerous with a computer, you should start impounding transistor radios.

Nice story on DC’s WRC Channel 4 about one of this blog’s favorite charities, ThanksUSA.org, which provides educational scholarships for wives and children of our troops:

The big winner of a national American history treasure hunt that raises money for scholarships for military families made a visit to D.C. over the weekend.

Tom Thompson, 55, of Elmont, N.Y., came to Washington to collect a treasure chest worth $100,000. He won the prize in the first annual ThanksUSA treasure hunt game designed to support families of U.S. troops.

“We do a lot of things — arguably not enough– but we, do a lot of things to support the troops, but as a country, we really don’t do anything to support the families,” said Thompson.

The online game was created two years ago to raise scholarship money for the children and spouses of military service members.

Inside Thompson’s treasure chest were relics from around the globe, including rare coins from sunken ships, Civil War era bullets, a buckle and buttons from a soldier’s uniform and diamonds and jewels from four continents. The grand prize also included a stay at the Willard Hotel; a tour of the White House, Capitol and other District monuments; and attending a Washington Nationals game.

The hunt’s creators are sisters Rachel and Kelsi Okun of McLean, Va.

Click here for the full story.

A few quick updates on ThanksUSA — the great charity that provides education scholarships to spouses and children of our troops.

On February 23, 2007, ThanksUSA launched Treasure Hunt Two — TH2 — which runs through September 4, 2007. The theme of this year’s American history treasure hunt is “Pillars of Democracy.”

• Players of all ages can test their knowledge of the history of America and of the 12 TH2 states
• Sixty percent of the questions are aligned to K-12 state history and social study standards
• Entire game can be played online interactively
• Classrooms, youth groups and individuals have the chance to win great educational and technological prizes like Staples gift certificates, iPods, iPhones and laptop computers

There’s a great write-up by The Politico’s Anne Schroeder in her Shenanigans gossip column about a recent ThanksUSA breakfast event.  Click here to read.

And a round-up of ThanksUSA YouTube videos by clicking here.

As always, here’s the main ThanksUSA page.

Very nice plug in USA Today for one of our favorite charities, ThanksUSA.

This nifty graphic is from USA Today:

Extreme Mortman helped out the great charity ThanksUSA’s first treasure hunt last year.  The second treasure hunt has just begun, lasting until September.

What is ThanksUSA?  It is a non-partisan, charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to “thank” the men and women of the United States armed forces. The charity is doing that by providing college, technical and vocational school scholarships for their children and spouses.

Other bloggers are likewise invited to promote the promotional effort, and the hunt itself.  Click here for more information.  And feel free to put the ThanksUSA logo on your own site.

A quick word of update on the great ThanksUSA.org non-partisan charity, and the national treasure hunt to raise money for education scholarships for spouses and children of America’s troops.

Over a thousand scholarships were awarded, totaling $3.5 million.  The treasure hunt had over 6,000 online game players — and there will be Treasure Hunt II next spring with scholarships for ‘07 too.  The next milestone: the Nov 14 gala in DC to raise scholarship dollars, hosted by the wives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with many Senators and Congressmen attending.  The winner of the ‘06 Treasure Hunt will be announced at the gala.  Click here for more details on the ThanksUSA premier gala.

We’re in the last days for the national treasure hunt fundraiser sponsored by ThanksUSA.org — a great non-partisan charity that raises money to provide education scholarships to families of Americas’ troops.  If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time. Click here.  Donate.  Spread the word.

Extreme Mortman recently interviewed the amazing young ladies who came up with the idea — eight-year-old Kelsi Okun and 10-year-old Rachel Okun.  See them for yourself this Saturday at 7:50 a.m. on “Fox & Friends.”